"It's the race against time, and against death." 350 patients worldwide, including 250 in France, live in anxiety. All are type 1 diabetic and have been implanted with an insulin pump produced by the company Medtronic. The American pharmaceutical giant announced the end of production of this device in June 2020, the product not being profitable enough.
"Financial interest trumps human life"
The patients, very worried, do not yet have an alternative solution. "We have no right to condemn us," denounces Sabine Guérin, one of the patients concerned, at the microphone of Europe 1. She has been carrying an insulin pump in her womb for 25 years. A renaissance at the time: she was able to have a child, to live an almost normal existence. The shutdown of production announced by Medtronic would prevent replacing its pump in the future. The idea is unbearable to him: "You discover something that allows you to live, and there you are told 'finally it's over'. It's very painful. It is the financial interest that prevails over the human life, "she laments.
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The solution offered by the company Medtronic is to return to a subcutaneous device that most patients deem ineffective or even dangerous for their health. Jean-Louis Marti has been established for 18 years. His insulin pump stabilized his illness. He no longer imagines going back. "The type 1 diabetics who were implanted were by necessity. Before being implanted I had 11 comas. I think that if I had not had that I would have died," he says. Patients are appealing to the Ministry of Health to force the pharmaceutical giant to continue producing pumps until other companies in the sector develop an effective device.